BlackBerry 10 launch: Research In Motion name will still have life in Waterloo

No move to change name of RIM Park, mayor says.

WATERLOO, ONT.—It started nearly 30 years ago with football players doing ballet.

Then-student Mike Lazaridis was trying to register a tech company. His first choice was Paradigm Research, but that was already taken. A few more submissions — at $160 a pop — got rejected, too.

Then one night, Lazaridis was channel-surfing and came across a story about football players taking ballet lessons. “Poetry in Motion” flickered on the screen as the players danced around the opposition.

Then the company co-founder submitted another name: Research In Motion. It was incorporated on March 7, 1984, and rose to prominence over the next two decades with its signature smartphone, the BlackBerry.

On Wednesday, the Research In Motion name was retired. CEO Thorsten Heins, who replaced Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie at the head of the company early last year, announced at the launch of the long-awaited BlackBerry 10 that Research In Motion would become simply BlackBerry.

Heins said the launch marks a new start for the company. “The new starting line that today represents, begins with one consistent brand, a brand that is recognized around the world,” said Heins.

There was little nostalgia on the streets of Waterloo, Ont., where RIM has remained wildly popular even as it’s fallen from grace elsewhere.

“BlackBerry, that’s what they do, so I guess it makes sense,” said Nic Tustin, a manager at McGinnis Front Row restaurant, which is offering discounts to anyone with a BlackBerry 10 in February.

Ian McLean, CEO and president of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce, said outside of its hometown, the RIM name has never been well known.

“I don’t think it will matter to people here, they understand BlackBerry is the internationally recognized name,” said McLean. “When you say RIM, people kind of look blank. When you say BlackBerry, people know.”

RIM occupies an estimated 20 per cent of office space in the area. “There’s a lot of RIM signs here,” mused McLean.

At the company’s campus near the University of Waterloo, RIM flags still fly alongside those of Ontario and Canada. Eventually, black and white BlackBerry logos will flap in their place. “It will take a little time,” Carrie O’Neil of RIM media relations said in an email.

The company handed out BlackBerry toques and hot chocolate in front of the Shops at Waterloo Town Square Wednesday evening as perhaps 100 people turned out to celebrate the BlackBerry 10 launch.

The party was supposed to include a skate, with music blaring over a rink, but the day’s unseasonably warm temperatures deterred most.

Lou Pheifer of Waterloo said he came to the event to support the company.

“They’ve done a lot of good in the community, a lot of philanthropy,” said Pheifer, who has been without a phone for eight months, holding out for the BlackBerry 10.

The new moniker, he said as he donned a BlackBerry hat, is fitting.

BlackBerry ads lead the way along the boulevard that runs to RIM Park, the city’s 500-acre sport and recreation facility. New BlackBerry signs stand in front of nearby buildings, which still have the blue and white RIM logo in the corner near the roof.

RIM Park will keep its name, for now.

The company said there would be no change. And Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran said any switch of moniker would go through council and the company, but she hasn’t heard whether anyone wants that change.

“That’s going to be a discussion,” said Halloran. “The community knows it as RIM Park.”

John Pliniussen, a professor of sales, innovation and e-marketing at Queen’s School of Business, said the name change is a good way to draw attention, as the company attempts to re-brand itself and bounce back from its slump.

“BlackBerry makes much more sense because that’s what we use,” said Pliniussen.

The company will trade as BB on the TSX and BBRY on Nasdaq starting on Feb. 4.

Correction: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said it started 20 years ago when Mike Lazaridis tried to register a tech company.

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